Understandably, female athletes have a lot of legitimate concerns about biological men who “identify” as women participating in women’s sports, and many of them center around physical safety.
Will this athlete hurt me during the course of play because of size/strength/speed superiority? Will this athlete be allowed to change and shower next to me in the women’s locker room? And for female athletes in contact sports like wrestling, one fear is will this athlete touch me inappropriately?
According to Kallie Keeler, a high school student in Washington state, such a nightmare allegedly became a reality during a December 2025 wrestling tournament in which she claims a transgender student – who she did not know was a biological male – sexually assaulted her mid-match:
Kallie’s first tournament of the season was a girls-only event sponsored by the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) and the district. For her final match, coaches and a tournament official directed her to the mat against an opponent from another school. Kallie and her mother assumed her opponent was a girl.During the match, the male athlete sexually assaulted her, doing what wrestlers call an “oil check,” an illegal move where a wrestler will use their fingers to penetrate an opponent’s private areas through their spandex. This flagrant violation can result in penalties, disqualification, and criminal charges. Such an act has no place in any context, let alone wrestling, and Washington law treats this as a serious crime.Visibly distressed, Kallie let herself be pinned so the match would end, then ran to her mother in tears. Only afterward did a coach from another team tell her that her opponent was male, adding to her feeling of being violated.Two days later, Kallie’s mother reported the assault in writing to the coaches and gave them video of the match. A coach replied that she had not known the opponent was male and said she would follow up. Days went by. Then weeks passed. They hadn’t heard anything. Under Washington law, school personnel must report assault complaints to law enforcement within 48 hours. As it turned out, the district did not notify law enforcement for nearly two months, and only after a journalist contacted the school for comment.
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is representing Kallie, who is now 16, and her family in a federal lawsuit filed against the state. Kristen Waggoner, who is ADF’s president, CEO, and chief counsel, shared a short video clip that contains what they say is the moment the sexual assault allegedly happened. Watch the expression on Kallie’s face change to shock at about the halfway point of the video:
Kallie is no longer wrestling because she no longer feels safe to participate in the sport she loves.
To add insult to injury, Pierce County prosecutors have declined to prosecute the unnamed athlete in the case:
A criminal investigation included interviews with the alleged victim and her mother, as well as video of the alleged assault. The sheriff’s office referred a rape charge to the prosecutor’s office.
On June 5, the Pierce County Prosecutor’s Office declined to file criminal charges in the case because “it’s clear that any potential charges could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.”
In reviewing the case, the prosecutor’s office cites a case concerning a basketball game where a player was punched and injured. An appellate court found that a person who willingly participates in sports consents to “potentially offensive contact.” Further, inappropriate touching of the genitals in wrestling is common enough where it has a nickname and any offensive or harmful touching was “a direct by-product of the game.”
Waggoner shared thoughts on that in another X post, but did note the local prosecutor was “still considering action against those who failed to report the sexual assault, as required by law:”
Let’s make one thing very clear: signing up for girls’ wrestling is in NO way a permission slip for sexual assault.As @ADFLegal explained in our lawsuit: “Digital penetration falls outside the scope of implied consent to participating in athletics because, under normal circumstances of girls wrestling, it is not a reasonably foreseeable hazard from the perspective of a girl wrestler. Nor is sexual assault or groping generally accepted by society as part of any lawful athletic contest.”Also: girls who sign up for girls’ wrestling aren’t consenting to wrestle boys. Kallie Keeler was betrayed by multiple adults in authority, who knowingly allowed her to wrestle a male without her knowledge or consent. They bear responsibility for what happened to her—and they are continuing to put female wrestlers in harm’s way through their actions and policies.That’s why, besides suing governing bodies @wiaawa, @waOSPI, and the Puyallup School District, we’re also suing:- State superintendent Chris Reykdal- Kallie’s principal- Her school district’s Title IX coordinator- Her opponent’s coach… and not just in their official capacities, but as individuals.I’m also glad to hear the local prosecutor is reportedly still considering action against those who failed to report the sexual assault, as required by law. These mandatory reporters should have reported the incident within 48 hours but waited 53 days. They should face consequences.We won’t rest until Kallie gets justice—and girls in Washington state get their sports back.
Here’s what ADF is seeking on behalf of Kallie and her mom, Stephanie Brown:
The lawsuit seeks to preclude transgender athletes from competing with or against Keeler in sports; declare ineligible any athletes transgender athletes from competing in sports with or against Keeler; require the district to provide notice and opt-out rights to Brown when her daughter is to compete against transgender athletes in girls sports; correct all records where Keeler lost to a transgender athlete.
The lawsuit further asks that Keeler is given the chance to participate in sports without academic penalty or eligibility penalty and restore her lost athletic eligibility. It also seeks to require all defendants named to provide training to all relevant employees to avoid similar situations in the future.The lawsuit also seeks an award for damages to be determined at trial.
The case has also caught the attention of some high-profile advocates of protecting women’s sports, including “Save Women’s Sports” spokeswoman Riley Gaines, “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling, and tennis great Martina Navratilova:
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights began investigating this case in February to “determine whether the District violated Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX) by allowing males to compete in female sports, allowing males to access locker rooms designated for use by female students, and failing to adequately respond to allegations of sexual assault.”
The 74-page complaint filed by the ADF can be read here.
– Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via X. –
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